The latest edition
of the Penguin Guide is bigger
than ever – 1588 pages against the 1520
of the last complete edition, that for
2005/6. It’s changed its name, too,
with the subtitle The Key Classical
Recordings on CD, DVD and SACD.
I’ve owned every version of this Guide
since The Stereo Record Guide,
as it was, became the Penguin Guide
in the 1970s – and even earlier when,
in the 1960s, Penguin issued their Guide
to Bargain Records, distilled from
the hardback volumes.
Whatever else I may
say about the new edition, let me make
clear at the outset that the Guide
remains an important tool for the serious
collector of recorded classical music.
When I saw it on sale in a Central London
store, I knew I had to buy it, even
though its weight was a considerable
disadvantage on a rush-hour train when
I already had several other heavy objects
with me. It really is a heavy tome and,
even so, some important recordings have
had to be omitted from the headings,
with brief details and catalogue numbers
given only in the body of the review.
The new edition contains
the usual maddening mix of excellence
and opportunities missed. There is so
much on the market now, as compared
with the 1960s, that it is purely impossible
to cover everything – and even in the
1960s they had to resort to a two-volume
situation. Maybe that would be the best
answer now – A-L one year, M-Z the next
– instead of issuing a full Guide every
other year with a Yearbook for the intervening
year. The Yearbook solution means duplication
of material and, in any case, we have
to wait for the Yearbook to get the
reviews of concerts and recitals, no
longer able to be carried in the main
volume.
I welcome the innovations
made in the new Guide. We now have four-star
recommendations for really outstanding
issues, thus dealing with the criticism
that there were simply too many
*** and **(*) recommendations. Is the
rather under-powered Naxos Janáček
Sinfonietta, for example,
really worth ***?
I may not agree with
all the new four-star recommendations,
and I am not sure what the difference
is between a four-star and a rosetted
three-star CD: perhaps this inconsistency
will be ironed out next time around.
The ‘key’ symbol is retained from earlier
editions.
Key repertoire with
*** and **** recommendations is now
made to stand out by being boxed in
grey. Some of the highlighting seems
rather busy, thus defeating the purpose
– nine highlighted versions of Beethoven’s
Emperor Concerto in various couplings
– but this is probably inevitable when
there are so many excellent recordings
out there.
The other very useful
thing about the Guide is its ability
to remind us of those recordings which
have slipped in under the radar, especially
those marked with the now long-standing
symbol (N) for new. The new fonts employed
for this symbol and for the (BB), (B)
and (M) price-level indicators make
for greater clarity, though not all
recordings new to the Guide are so marked.
Several of the Australian Eloquence
issues, for example, are new without
being marked as such, but I am grateful
to the Guide for reminding me of their
existence, since most of them have not
appeared in magazine reviews, together
with the myriad valuable reissues on
labels such as Apex and Eloquence.
The new Australian
Eloquence series is well represented
but several older European-sourced Eloquence
bargains failed to make into earlier
editions and are still absent from the
2008 Guide. Where is the Curzon/Vienna
Octet version of Schubert’s Trout
Quintet, coupled with the Death
and the Maiden Quartet, a first-class
bargain on 467 417-2? The wonderful
Janet Baker/Bernard Haitink Mahler das
Lied von der Erde is listed in its
2-CD format but the Eloquence separate
issue, an even better bargain on 468
182-2, is not. Colin Davis’s excellent
Boston set of the Shostakovich symphonies
on two 2-CD sets is listed, as is his
LSO version of Nos. 5 and 6, but his
Eloquence Boston version of these two
symphonies (468 198-2) is not.
Haitink’s version of
Shostakovich’s 5th and 9th
Symphonies (Eloquence 467 478-2), which
is not listed, is a better bargain than
the Naxos/Rahbari at the same price,
which is listed. His version of Shostakovich’s
8th (467 465-2) would have
been worth listing as a useful supplement
to other versions at the very least.
Where the Guide reviews
recordings which have come my way, it
is gratifying to see how closely their
judgement accords with my own. Inevitably,
of course, there will be differences
of opinion – I am pleased to note that
the over-generous reviews of the Naxos
versions of Shostakovich’s Leningrad
and 8th Symphonies were dropped
several editions ago,
though the *** for the Janáček
remains – but the Guide can usually
be relied on for a sane, well-informed
view.
How could it be other
when Edward Greenfield is still one
of those at the helm? He would probably
hate to be reminded how long he has
been reviewing for Gramophone
– as I hate to remind myself how long
I have been reading those reviews –
but long ago I learned to rely on his
reviews and those of Trevor Harvey as
Holy Writ. Only once did he let me down
when, in the Guardian, he recommended
the underpowered Naxos Shostakovich
CDs which I have mentioned.
The other reviewers,
too, are long-term and reliable. I am
pleased to note that they have taken
at least some new blood on board: Paul
Czajkowski, formerly listed as Assistant
Editor, now gets full credit. Very rarely
do we find out who contributed which
review, though occasionally one or other
named reviewer inserts a caveat.
Having had to eat humble
pie myself recently for bungling a CD
number, I am amazed that so few typos
get through a Guide which contains so
many recordings. None of which will
prevent me from revealing them when
I come across them in future reviews
without, I hope, too much smug pedantry.
Surprisingly, the new
Guide has carried over some numerical
oddities from long-gone editions. The
Pascal Rogé 2-CD set of Saint-Saëns
Piano Concertos retains, in italics,
a phantom cassette number, 443 865-4.
I have already indicated
that this will be a mixed review. My
most serious criticism of the new edition
of the Guide is that it seems to be
more out-of-date already than earlier
editions. The 2006/7 Yearbook contained
some Gothic Voices reissues, complete
with Helios catalogue numbers, which
Hyperion have not reissued even yet.
The new Guide, however, seems much less
up-to-date than its predecessors. The
cut-off point seems to be the Spring
of 2007 so that when we do reach 2008
the Guide which bears that year in its
title will be almost a year out-of-date.
Of course, any review tends to become
obsolete in a very short time: I didn’t
realise when I reviewed the reissue
of Leif-Ove Andsnes’ first version of
the Grieg Piano Concerto that
his second version, more logically coupled
with the Schumann, was due for reissue
only weeks later on the very promising
new EMI Recommends label.
The new Guide seems,
however, to have become obsolete more
quickly than usual. I can’t complain
that the second Andsnes version of the
Grieg is still listed at full price,
but I am surprised that Haitink’s Rosenkavalier
is still listed as full-price when it
has been available at mid-price for
some time. (The number of the mid-price
reissue is correctly given, 3 58618
2).
The new Guide contains
very few of the CDs which I have reviewed
for Musicweb since I began in June.
Those that do appear are mostly reissues:
it would have been comparatively simple,
for example, to write the review of
Bob van Asperen’s performance of Bach’s
Well-tempered Clavier on two
Virgin 2-CD sets, since there was already
a review in the 2005/6 edition of the
4-CD set of these recordings, copied
verbatim in the new edition.
(Nothing wrong with that, of course.)
One of my June reviews,
for example, was of Volume II of Naxos’s
Corelli Op. 5 Sonatas: the Guide has
not got beyond Volume I, issued several
years ago. The Regis versions of Mozart
Piano Concertos (Tirimo) and the Schubert
String Quintet which I also reviewed
in June have still not made it to the
new Guide.
Nor is the Naxos recording
of Ireland’s String Quartets
and The Holy Boy, reviewed by
my colleague Michael Cookson in August
2006, to be found. Admittedly MC thought
the Quartets themselves immature works
– actually I rate them rather higher
than he does – but he recommended the
playing of the Maggini Quartet and the
disc is certainly well worth mentioning.
In the operatic field,
too, there are serious omissions. Three
DVDs of Monteverdi’s Il Ritorno d’Ulisse
are listed, one receiving only a
single star. Christie’s version, surely
worth three stars in any money, is not
listed. (Virgin 4906129 – a top-selling
version with at least one major mail-order
company.) The ultra-bargain 3-CD set
on Brilliant Classics 93104 is also
worthy of mention: in fact, on the basis
of having heard this version, I feel
safe in recommending the Brilliant versions
of the other Monteverdi operas.
Taking at random some
of the recent Gramophone award-winners
and runners-up, Julia Fischer’s Tchaikovsky
Violin Concerto is represented,
as are Simon Rattle’s Brahms Requiem
and David Lloyd-Jones’ version of Elgar’s
Spirit of England but not the
AAM Handel Op.3 Concertos or John Butt’s
1741 version of Handel’s Messiah.
The Opus 111/Alessandrini 3-CD set of
Monteverdi’s Madrigals Book 8
(with rosette and four stars, deservedly)
is listed but so is the now superseded
single CD of items from Book 8. The
Recording of the Year, the Nelson Freire/Riccardo
Chailly 2-CD set of the Brahms Piano
Concertos – the only serious challenger
to the now classic Gilels/Jochum set
– is not listed.
More seriously, some
important composers have been dropped
entirely. Daquin may not be a household
name but he surely warrants inclusion
as much as Damase and Darnton (who they?)
between whose reviews Daquin should
have appeared. His Noëls
for organ, which I recently reviewed
on a Helios reissue, make for Christmas
listening beyond the usual suspects,
King’s College et al. The pioneering
version of Eccles’ Semele was
listed in the last edition at full price.
Now it is available at bargain price
from Regis, but poor old Eccles has
gone completely. (Except, of course,
on the BBC’s regular repeats of The
Goon Show, where he rightly remains
‘the famous Eccles’.)
Locatelli had a page-and-a-bit
in the last edition plus half a page
in the Yearbook. Alas, where is he now?
Is George Lloyd – attractive music,
but hardly first-rate – really worth
three pages and Locatelli none? Are
four of the CDs of Lloyd’s Symphonies
really key repertoire, as they are marked?
Are Locatelli’s Concerti Grossi
‘after Corelli’ not worth at least as
much as Avison’s Concerti ‘after
Scarlatti’, which are mentioned? Don’t
throw your copy of the old edition away
– there are some (very) important CDs
listed there which are still available
but not listed in the new version. (Unless
they are tucked away somewhere inaccessible:
the listings of the various versions
of Wagner’s Ring operas are somewhat
hard to follow, but I cannot find any
mention of the Janowski set, regarded
in some quarters as the best modern
version and surely preferable to the
Naxos/Zagrosek versions, which are listed.)
Full marks to Penguin
for keeping the price down to £25, the
same as two years ago, though this has
partly been achieved by making the cover
much more flimsy and less attractive.
(The assistant who sold it to me commented
on its recycled appearance.) This places
it in the same price range as the latest
edition of the Gramophone Guide,
recently reviewed very favourably here
on Musicweb by Ian Lace.
The two guides serve
rather different purposes – the Gramophone
Guide limiting itself to two or
three versions of mostly major repertoire,
the Penguin aiming to be more
comprehensive. Though it sometimes fails
to be comprehensive in ways which I
have indicated, the Penguin Guide
continues to be a very valuable tool.
I expect my copy to look well and truly
battered by the time that its successor
appears.
Brian Wilson
see also Review
by Ian Lace
